KMT unresponsive to new citizens

By Michael Hsiao 蕭新煌

When faced with serious accusations that Ma has accepted illegal political donations for years, the Presidential Office is slow to respond, which only serves to increase suspicion.

Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) was appointed following the KMT’s defeat in the local elections. It only stands to reason that he should make a reform declaration, but he did not bother to even include a slogan in his policy report, which only shows his complete lack of interest in fighting the battle.

Judging from the actions and statements of Ma and Mao — the highest ranking officers in the government — in the past months, it is hard to imagine they would have the will to start anew through reform. One can only hope that they will not squander their last months in office, because that would be the worst-case scenario and bring harm to everyone: themselves, the people and the whole nation.

Newly elected KMT Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) bid to retain his post as mayor of New Taipei City only gave him a regretful marginal win, the possible reason being that the way he handles politics is full of arrogance and shrewdness, but perhaps lacking sufficient confidence and competence.

When campaigning for the party chairmanship, he tried very hard to make people believe that he was determined to seriously reform the party, by talking about returning the party assets to the state, carrying out constitutional reform and restoring the spirit of the party’s founding fathers, and so on.

However, it did not take long before Chu corrected himself, saying that returning the party assets is a false argument, and that his idea of constitutional reform is actually just advocacy for a parliamentary system. As for his vision of restoring the spirit of the founding fathers, Chu accomplished that by gaily singing You Are My Brother with Tainan Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教), who was involved in the vote-buying scandal in the Tainan City Council.

As for Chu’s intention to distance himself from Ma by shuffling the cards in the party’s human resources, that is actually irrelevant to any effective reform of the party’s nature and structure. Whether he will dare withdraw the KMT’s lawsuit against Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is not at all the yardstick by which to determine if the KMT can rid itself of fake democracy and its money-oriented nature.

Looking at Chu’s actions over the past two months, there are no signs that he has engaged in any kind of real self-reflection as to why he almost lost the mayoral election last year. If he only attacked Ma to establish his authority in the party, that would probably mean that the acclaimed KMT reform is going to be just another illusion.

The actions of the KMT’s legislative caucus over the past few months are hardly commendable either. The few of them who are often invited to play the role of the KMT liberal faction on TV talk shows are in fact just half-hearted turncoat reformers who do not have the courage to utter their support clearly and directly for reforming and cleaning up the legislature.